Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) denounced the possibility of using the U.S. military for mass deportations, which President-elect Trump has said he’d be open to in recent days.
“I will not support an emergency to put the Army into our cities. I think that’s a huge mistake,” Paul said Tuesday on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
The Kentucky congressman’s comments come as Trump has signaled that his second administration will declare an immigration national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations.
On Monday, Trump recirculated a post on social media suggesting that his administration would follow through with the idea, labeling the claim “TRUE!!!”
Paul, who is set to serve as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, further denounced the idea during the interview.
“I’m not in favor of sending the Army in uniforms into our cities to collect people,” Paul said. “I think it’s a terrible image and that’s not what we use our military for.”
Paul suggested that military training is not conducive for conducting deportations.
“They’re not trained to get a warrant to do what they’re doing. The police have a difficult job, but the people removing people from our country need to be a police enforcement domestic agency, not the military,” Paul said.
Paul added that while he is supportive of Trump and “removing people illegally here, particularly people who have committed crimes,” he doesn’t want the Army to be used to do so.
“I’m not for the Army marching up and down our streets,” Paul said.
“I hope he [Trump] will think twice about trying to use an emergency edict to have the Army patrolling our country,” Paul later added.
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